Though it never quite reached Twilight or The Hunger Games levels of pop culture permeance, it’s easy to remember a time when The Vampire Diaries and its two spinoffs: The Originals and Legacies, were some of the most talked-about shows on TV. They were certainly some of the most popular teen and genre dramas of all time. Between brooding bad boys, villains with hearts of gold, and iconic 2010s fashion, The Vampire Diaries universe’s unique brand of melodrama secured it a sizable fandom and a healthy 8-season run on the CW. This is why the network’s recent decision to ax Legacies—and in turn bring the 10+ year franchise to a sudden and unceremonious end—was so shocking.
It’s disheartening to see such a set of shows that were such a pop culture juggernaut meet such an underwhelming end—especially considering Legacies’ sudden cancelation meant the creators didn’t have time to close out the series properly. Instead, they were forced to turn the season five finale into a series finale. But now that Legacies is six feet under and its predecessors have long ended, is that it for the Vampire Diaries? How could a once-unstoppable Universe end so abruptly? And, perhaps most importantly, where does the franchise go from here?
Though it was certainly shocking and heartbreaking for diehard fans, it’s not quite fair to say that Legacies’ cancellation was completely and utterly out of the blue. It’s worth noting that The Vampire Diaries was the only series in the franchise that saw a full, 8-season run—The Originals, too, didn’t make it past season five. In addition to a mixed reception from both critics and fans alike, Legacies’ viewing figures were flagging, a continuing trend that has plagued the franchise since season five of The Vampire Diaries. Of the three, TVD was (perhaps predictably) by far the most viewed, easily averaging north of 1.5 million viewers, even after Nina Dobrev departed the show at the end of season six.
The same, unfortunately, couldn’t be said for The Originals, the first spinoff to spawn from TVD—which featured love-to-hate-him villain Klaus Mikaelson (Joseph Morgan, who regularly acted circles around his TVD costars). Despite the fact that The Originals generally garnered better critical reception than its parent series, and was without question home to the best writing and acting the TVDU had to offer, the viewing figures still couldn’t clear a million, especially in the later seasons.
So, with The Originals—by all accounts a much better series than Legacies, not to mention one that featured a number of well-loved TVD regulars—struggling with viewership, the writing was already on the wall for Legacies. Granted, it probably didn’t help that (though Hope, Lizzie, and Josie are wonderful) the show’s largest tie to The Vampire Diaries and the only regular cast member on both shows was Matt Davis’ Alaric Saltzman, a character who by the point of Legacies’ premiere had far outstayed his welcome with fans.
Though Hope’s (spoiler alert!) transformation into a vampire (and thus a tribrid) brought some of the excitement and intrigue of The Vampire Diaries that Legacies was sorely missing, the long-awaited plot development came too little too late, and Legacies met an untimely end at the hands of the television cancellation Gods. Sure, the signs may have been there for viewers paying attention to the numbers and the behind-the-scenes goings-on, but a rushed season finale pulling double duty as a series finale is an unfortunate way to say ‘goodbye’ to the 10+ year long franchise, not to mention Legacies on its own.
Though the franchise may not be able to continue on ‘always and forever’, die-hard fans shouldn’t give up all hope for a continuation of the franchise. According to creator Julie Plec (we have some additional thoughts about her), the Vampire Diaries universe may not end with Legacies, after all. There has always been talk and speculation about a third Vampire Diaries spinoff, but after Legacies’ cancellation made headlines, those rumors took on a much more concrete form.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Plec admitted that initially, the plan was for Legacies to continue airing past season five, but that it would’ve kept going until the third spinoff was on the air: “We had a plan to keep the franchise on the air until the next installment, which exists in our brains, but not on the page yet. There will be another one. We’re a little sad, we’re going to take a beat, but yeah, there’s more ideas. There’s more to do.”
With a third Vampire Diaries spinoff all but confirmed by franchise boss Julie Plec, there’s really only one question on fans’ minds—what will the next spinoff be? Unlike with previous shows, the subject of a new untitled Vampire Diaries spinoff isn’t as easy to predict. Both Originals and Legacies were cooked up while their parent shows were still on the air, which allowed the writers to create lay the groundwork and introduce character/settings that could continue even after the first show ended. With Legacies dead on arrival, though, there’s no seamless way to move from one spinoff to the next, which means that any potential spinoffs won’t have the benefit of a backdoor pilot.
At the same time, though, some distance from Legacies might not be the worst thing in the world for a prospective Vampire Diaries spinoff: Legacies (though charming in its own right) frequently received criticism for how much it didn’t “feel” like The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. Some distance from the franchise would allow creatives to regroup and focus on what made The Vampire Diaries so successful to begin with.
On the flipside, some time off the air could also give the franchise’s writers the chance to right some past wrongs heading into a new series. All three shows infamously struggled with their treatment of Black women (Bonnie Bennett in particular has often been pointed out as mistreated), and the chance for a clean slate could give creatives the opportunity to reflect on past mistakes and move forward: ideally with a more diverse team both in front of and behind the camera.
While at one point it might’ve been hard to imagine that The Vampire Diaries universe would end with the abrupt cancellation of a poorly-reviewed tween spinoff, TVD will always remain an icon of YA 2010s pop culture, and one of the most influential shows to come out of the CW. Legacies may have been a rather lackluster finale to a once-promising franchise, but with the possibility of a new spinoff on the horizon, The Vampire Diaries universe may once again have the opportunity to reinvent itself and remind viewers why they fell in love with Mystic Falls.
(images via the CW)
